


"Fascist." "Hag."

by snufflyphoenix



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Borderlands Big Bang Challenge, Canon-Typical Violence, Derogatory Language, Gen, Graphic Description, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Injury, Threats of Violence, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 18:22:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14111307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snufflyphoenix/pseuds/snufflyphoenix
Summary: "Fascist.""Hag."Jack has Lilith captive to charge the Vault Key. While he knows he can't kill her, he can have some fun hurting her beyond belief. Lilith is tired, beaten down, and just wants out, but she isn't going down without a fight.





	"Fascist." "Hag."

**Author's Note:**

> My collaboration with daemonfiend (on tumblr) for the Reverse Borderlands Big Bang, centring around a final confrontation between Handsome Jack and Lilith. I'll link to his art piece when it is posted and I'm more awake. This fic is currently unfinished but it's posting day so here we go! Second chapter will be up shortly.

Lilith groaned as Jack slowly pulled the dagger from her hip, gritting her teeth as she felt her skin attempting to close around the jagged edge of the blade. Jack wiped it on the tail of his shirt and drew his lips up into a smile, half mocking and half pitying.

“Tired?” he asked, dragging the pointed tip across the back of her shoulders as he circled her.

She raised her head slowly, meeting his eyes as he moved back in front of her. “Not a chance.” 

“Good,” he grasped her chin, “because I got a whole lot more where that came from, baby.” 

He turned his face in disgust as Lilith spat at him furiously and jerked her face towards his, holding it so tight she wondered if her jaw might snap. 

“Don’t call me that,” she snarled. 

“I’ll call you whatever I want, princess.” His smirk infuriated Lilith and she bared her teeth at him. “See, I don’t think you fully appreciate the situation here. I’m in control. There is nothing-” he made a small incision across her cheekbone, “you-” he made another along her jawline, “or any of your _pathetic little friends_ -” each word punctuated by a shallow jab down her neck, “can _do_.” 

At the last word he plunged the knife into her shoulder and left it there, chuckling to himself as she yelled out in pain. She tried to refrain from whimpering as he walked away, slumped over, the only thing holding her up the field of energy Jack had keeping her captive. The knife was slowly being pulled from her flesh exclusively by gravity and if it were possible for her to fall to the ground she would have by now.

She was tired. So incredibly tired. And if she felt like this after only a few days, she couldn’t even begin to imagine how Angel must have felt - her energy being sapped day after day for at least a decade, forced to do her father’s bidding whatever the cost. She couldn’t blame the young girl for asking the Vault Hunters help to die. As she had begged her friends over the Echonet, if they couldn’t stop this they had to kill her. She refused to be kept like this. 

“You won’t win,” she panted, her tattoos flickering as she struggled to hold her head up. “They will end you. You and every last little piece of the Hyperion machine will _burn_ for what you have done to Pandora.” 

Jack raised an eyebrow, something behind his eyes changing. “You try to talk to me about what I’ve done to Pandora when you- You are everything that’s wrong with this goddamn planet.” 

Lilith smiles weakly. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, John.” 

The knife finally falls out of her shoulder and clangs loudly on the metal floor. In an instant, Jack is across the room, a hand tight around her throat and she finds herself being lifted from the floor. 

“My name,” he growls, holding her up to his face, “is Handsome Jack. I’m the goddamn hero who’s going to save this godforsaken planet from the likes of you. God, you think you’re so fucking innocent; you, who has people burning themselves alive in worship of you; you who would turn this planet upside down just to prevent progress because in this version of the world you get to be the Queen - well, guess what, pumpkin? I’m the king.” 

He lets her go and she falls, hitting the floor for the first time as she gasps for breath before being pulled back into the energy field.

“You’ll never be a king,” she gasps, “you’re a tyrant and a dictator. You say I won’t let anyone get in my way. _You_ built a laser out of the body parts of one Vault monster to level planets and threaten your enemies into submission, you performed hostile takeovers on every planet you’ve colonised and for what?”

“For /order/.” He scoffs. “Not that I’d expect a bandit like you to understand such a thing. See, the thing is, in order for things to move forward someone has to get their hands dirty. I’m the only one who can see what has to be done and who isn’t afraid to do it.”

“You’re a murderer.”

“For the greater good.”

“You can’t actually believe that.” 

“And you believe your excuses?” He snarled. “You can’t even tell yourself you’re doing anything worthwhile.” 

“We’re stopping you from destroying everything.” Lilith glared back.

“Please, you’re managing to destroy everything perfectly well by yourself, sweetheart. Oh, you dropped this.” He added as he picked up the dagger and lodged it neatly in the back of her knee, causing her to buckle, almost knelt before him. He laughs. “It’s cute. Powerful Siren or no, without your friends you’re nothing. I literally have you on your knees in front of me, I can make you do whatever I want you to. Face it, Lily. It’s over. I have you right where I want you.” 

“ _Don’t. Call me. Lily._ ” She hissed, her jaw clenched, staring resolutely at the floor. He would not see her cry, not after all this.

“Nah, I’m gonna call you Lily.” He grinned, squatting in front of her so he’s eye level with her. “I think it fits you. Fragile, near death. Universally beloved.” He rolls his eyes before standing, crushing her fingers with the heel of his shoe as he did so. “I’ve always hated them.”

She yelled out, clutching her hand to her chest as it began to rebuild itself, her yellow eyes ablaze as she stared at him. “You don’t have the right to call me that,” she said, “not after what you did.”

“Remind me again?” His grin got even wider, tilting his head condescendingly. “What exactly did I do to the man who used to call you Lily?” 

She seethed. “What about Angel? After everything you did to her; enslaved her, used her as a supercomputer, your energy source for powering the Vault Key; was all that worth it? She was your daughter, your child, she trusted you and you used her for your own gain and-”

“Don’t you ever say her name again, do you hear me?!” Jack yelled, his expression changed to one of blind fury as he kicked her in the stomach. Advancing towards her as she lay curled up in pain, he leant down and grabbed her hand, dragging her upwards so they were at face level. “You manipulated her, she was a /child/, and you murdered her to try and stop me-”

“She asked us to.” Lilith breathed, fighting to maintain eye contact. “You had ripped the life from her ever since you put her in that fucking chair, that the only option she had was to turn to strangers to end her miserable existence because you had enslaved her since she was a little girl, you think-”

“Enough!” He threw her to the floor again, her breathing shallow as she picked herself up, barely raising herself onto her forearms, shaking badly. He stooped to pull the dagger from her leg, crouching over her, only laughing as she tried to throw him off. 

“So helpless. At least you’re putting up more of a fight than your boyfriend. The look on his face when we dragged his corpse in, it was hilarious, he didn’t even see it coming.” He smiled as he carefully placed the point of the dagger between two vertebrae in her spine, ignoring the way her tattoos seemed to glow more intensely. “You’ll go out the same way at least. With a hole in your back from Handsome fucking Jack. Ha, that rhymed. 

“Night night, Lily. Smell ya later.” 

He smirked, starting to push the blade in before he was thrown off in a burst of light.

Lilith slowly climbed to her feet, her breathing laboured, but steady. Every part of her body was ablaze with light; her tattoos shone brilliantly, her eyes and hair seemed to burn, and it was with purpose in her stride she crossed the room to where Jack lay half crumpled against the wall, slowly pushing himself to his feet. The Firehawk was every part her name and she drew one glowing hand back in a fist. 

“This is for Roland.”


End file.
